I’m off to Spain for the 7th International Film Music Festival in Ubeda, Spain. Like last year, this year I’m a guest, talking for an hour or so about the work I do with La-La Land Records. (They’re all at Comic-Con this week, so I won’t be joining them like last year.) The flight to Dallas was fine, but for long-haul international flights, American Airlines really needs to step it up a notch. There was not only no in-flight WiFi …

The flight from Atlanta to Hartford was brief – just under two hours. I didn’t get any sleep, but did enjoy finishing off some television on my laptop. I knew that the biggest hurdle would be staying awake throughout the day – there was much planned! I was greeted at the arrivals terminal by both my sisters, my younger niece, and my adorable nephew, who I hadn’t seen since he was not even two months old. How eight months changes …

The problem with red-eye flights in general is that I can never seem to get any decent amount of sleep on them. I’ve been dealing with a stiff neck for the past week or so, so this flight was going to be rough either way. Compounding the situation was the brevity of the flight – it was only 3.5 hours, which was hardly enough time to get any reasonable amount of sleep. I probably only got 30 minutes of shut-eye. …

After a nice dinner at Tender Greens, I was taken to LAX for my red-eye flight to Hartford, via Atlanta. I had pre-checked in from home, so I just needed to go through security. There was not much of a line, and after placing my carry-on bag, my laptop bag, my laptop, my jacket, my belt, my wallet, my shoes and my cellphone all through the X-ray machine, I was then directed to go through the new controversial full body …

The flight was pretty uneventful; it took about 5 hours, and we landed right on time, around 10pm. It took 20 minutes to get off the plane and through the terminal to the AirTrain, where which I took to the Howard Beach station. I got the 7-day “unlimited” pass for the MTA, since I’d be taking advantage of it, and then hopped on the A-train to work my way to the Chelsea area, where I’d be staying at my friend’s …

I’m off to New York City today, for the first time in (I think) over six years. The weather here in Los Angeles is appropriately terrible; thunderstorms and pouring rain. In NYC, it’s raining right now as well, but the next few days are supposed to be gorgeous – sunny and in the high 60s/low 70s. I’ll be attending a book signing on Thursday, and a concert on Friday night; look for more details as they happen. I’ll also be …

The flight from DC to LA was rather uneventful – the excitement was when I arrived in LA, and had a slew of messages wondering if I was on a flight that had been diverted to Denver. Turns out that the 5pm flight from Dulles to LAX encountered severe turbulence, people were injured, and the flight was diverted to Denver. Wow. The original flight I was supposed to take was the one before the diverted flight, and so I never had an …

The delayed flight finally boarded and took off after 1pm – more than two hours later than scheduled. I fell asleep relatively quickly, but woke up for some lunch. Of course, since I was sitting in seat 21D, the two carts starting at the front and rear of the aircraft would meet right by my seat – which means both of them would run out of food just before servicing my row. Urgh. Luckily the other aisle had some extra …

So about 10 minutes before boarding was supposed to start, there was suddenly notification that the flight to Washington was delayed – by two hours. Well, so much for my connection to LAX. There’s obviously nothing I can do about this, but it’s still a pain the butt, since I now have to deal with getting onto a new flight to LA when I arrive in Washington, and who knows what is going to happen with my luggage.

I got up at 6:30am, cleaned up, packed, and headed down to breakfast at 7am. It was pretty quiet in the hotel, but Randy Edelman showed up (apparently he had a flight near the time I did as well) so we chatted a bit over coffee before I headed to my taxi to the airport. It was an uneventful ride; I checked in with Aer Lingus around 8:15am, and then was at my gate by 8:50am, with just under two …